


Burning Low

by quantumspliced



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Annoyed Harry, Hurt Merlin, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Merlin is ill and Harry is irritated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-17
Updated: 2015-09-17
Packaged: 2018-04-21 06:40:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4818995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumspliced/pseuds/quantumspliced
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't every day that you would find your colleague slumped on the floor, computer monitors blinking lazily behind him.</p><p>Or </p><p>In which Merlin is ill, and Harry is irritated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burning Low

It wasn't every day that you would find your colleague slumped on the floor, computer monitors blinking lazily behind him.

\-------

It had been a relatively normal morning for Galahad. Get up, go for the usual jog around the block, head off for work at 0730 hours exactly. Arrive at work at 0740 hours - sometimes slightly later, depending on whether the cab drivers were being bloody slow or not and creating traffic jams - and have the regular morning discussion with Arthur.

Things were not going as normal for Merlin.

\-------

It was at around 0630 hours when the irritating tremors in his hands had started.

Originally he had thought it was likely because of the caffeine in his Earl Grey. The tech wizard knew that he should probably attempt to rest - how long had it been since he had last slept? 32 hours, perhaps? - but he had shrugged all thoughts of sleep aside. He was busy. He had things to do. The last accident during a mission was his fault, a fault he should have noticed before putting this new piece of equipment into use in the field. It was the reason why Gaheris was injured. He was the reason why Gaheris was injured. The shaking in his hands would just get ignored for now.

And so he had kept on working.

Normally when Merlin worked away on blueprints on the computer all of his attention would be on the designs. Today, however, the lines on the computer screen slowly seemed to be blurring together. Almost every five minutes he had to pause and blink up at the ceiling in a futile attempt to clear his worsening vision.

When had his last optician appointment been, anyway..?

\-------

At 0700 hours the occasional hand tremors which were becoming incredibly frustrating to deal with while typing escalated into his whole body shaking. Despite the fact that his typing was now going bloody all over the place, Merlin had just gritted his teeth together and ignored it. If it wasn't messing things up completely, then it could be ignored.

Besides. He had work to do.

Naturally, Merlin wasn't going to abandon his work because of something as petty as this. Over the past months he had practically never left the Kingsman's British Headquarters, instead opting to occasionally get a couple hours of sleep at his desk before continuing on with his work. Galahad kept complaining that working like this wasn't healthy, but he didn't give a damn.

Illness was something he could ignore. Injuries to their own agents because of his own technology was something that couldn't be ignored.

\-------

0730 hours, and now the tech wizard had momentarily switched off his computer monitors. Rather than looking at them he had his eyes closed, head on his desk. At some point in the last half an hour he had reluctantly dragged himself away from his desk to acquire a blanket from one of the storage cupboards. The blanket was now curled around him, apparently not managing to provide any warmth at all.

Okay. Maybe work could be paused for just a second. Just a second.

It wasn't that often that Merlin felt this bad. Shaking, headache, blurred vision and now a highly annoying feeling of nausea... This morning, so far, wasn't the best. Wearily glancing up from his desk he had glanced over to his phone, feebly hitting the lock screen button. Brilliant, Galahad would be here soon... And it was likely he would saunter down to the lab to annoy the resident Kingsman techie.

Great. Illness he could deal with. Illness and Harry Hart he could not.

\-------

0800 had the entire room spinning. Merlin's attempts to start working again had seemingly been in vain, as the displays on the computer monitor had only merged together into a nauseating blue mess. Now he was staring at the floor over the edge of his desk. Mentally he had contemplated dragging himself out to the medical facilities to pester their medics for some painkillers, but had quickly thought against it. It was likely they'd just send him home.

He couldn't go home. He had work to do.

Was there still a near empty packet of ibuprofen in the table drawer over there..? Slowly Merlin had stood, exhaling slowly as he noticed he had to lean against the side of his desk. As soon as he straightened up, however, the headache turned into what felt like his head being torn apart, and the occasional blurry vision escalated into a blinding white light, rapidly engulfing his already pathetic vision.

Ngh, fuck. This was not the time to collapse. This was not the time to collapse. This was not the time to-

\-------

It was 0810 hours by the time Galahad had finished with his morning meeting with Arthur. As always said meeting had been tedious and had left Galahad wanting nothing more than to do something a tad more fast paced. Even another jog would be welcome at this point, even though he usually stayed with a definite routine every day.

He was an agent. Meetings, briefings and debriefings were included in the job description, but often he wished that they could be left out.

Rather than go for a jog, Galahad decided to head down to R&D to find Merlin. The handler was probably in his office isolating himself for others as per usual. For someone who worked in a relatively large organisation, Merlin was very reclusive. He was also very work-orientated. Often Harry had to pull him away from his desk, even if just for five minutes. This was what he was going to do now, in fact.

What Galahad hadn't expected to find was Merlin slumped on the floor, completely unconscious and concerningly feverish.

\-------

It was almost 1200 hours when Galahad was finally let in to see Merlin. Apparently Gaheris wasn't the only one who had been a victim of the last mission. It appeared that the hours of being out in the rain hadn't done the resident tech wizard any good. While the others had been in direct confrontation Merlin had been stuck looking behind the scope of a rifle, ready to provide support from a distance if needed. It seemed that staying in wet clothing and in the rain had resulted in a bad case of influenza that had merely became worse as the techie had ignored it.

When Merlin was both conscious and coherent again, Galahad was going to kill him. Metaphorically speaking.

\-------

1915 hours, and Merlin was slowly beginning to wake up. Why did everything seem so sluggish, and why could he smell antiseptic- Ah. He was in the medical wing, and was likely drugged up on multiple painkillers or something of the like... That explained why everything seemed so slow to process. What still needed to be explained, however, was why the ever-imposing face of Harry Hart was frowning disapprovingly down at him from his bedside.

Uch. He wished that Harry wouldn't use that one specific frowning expression. It made you feel like you were going to Hell for the most simple of things.

Galahad frowned down at Merlin, but upon noticing the vague confusion in the man's expression, he softened his frown. Merlin had one of those confused puppy-dog expressions that could make anyone seem like they were melting on the spot. For someone who could act so stern and composed, the tech wizard could still be an innocent puppy-dog when he needed to be.

"You need to learn to look after yourself." Galahad's voice sounded vaguely stern, but it was almost as if he just couldn't be angry with Merlin.

(This was, in fact, the reason why his anger seemed so vague.)

There was a pause before the tech wizard spoke, blinking slowly up at Galahad. "I know."

"You need to learn to not ignore when your health is burning low."

Another pause. "I know."

Galahad smiled slightly at Merlin, and Merlin smiled back slightly in response. Ill Merlin could only elicit sympathy, not anger.

Curse the Scottish and their perfection of the puppy-dog look.

"Don't let yourself get burned down this much again?"

"...Sure."

\-------

2000 hours found Merlin and Galahad quietly talking to each other, the former tiredly adding in a comment when it seemed necessary. Neither could be irritated at each other. Their interaction was so natural... Even when one of them was burning low. Originally Harry had been frustrated at the tech wizard for letting himself get so worn out, but he knew what it was like to work for hours on end. He knew how guilty you could feel when something went wrong because of you, and he knew how much you would try to make sure that a similar accident didn't happen again.

It was impossible for Galahad to be annoyed at Merlin.

They were with each other almost 24/7, after all.

\-------

2100 hours had the two slowly come together, leaning together in a slow, almost tired kiss. Neither cared. As long as they were there to support each other when it was needed, things would be alright in the end.

As long as they were together.


End file.
